“Thank Amun the natron delivery came yesterday,” one said as he passed. “The embalmers will surely need it now.”
Neff blinked. She’d seen the natron delivery—the man from her vision, Karim, had snuck into the temple with the natron vendor and his donkey. News of the king’s collapse and death had pushed the events in the House of Life from her mind, but now they came rushing back.
The mysterious pharaoh named Setnakht. The Oracle of the Lamb.
Ancient forces had drawn her to this place, and then had drawn Karim to her. When she’d first seen him in the courtyard, she’d felt it—like an invisible cord pulling them together. She’dfelt a similar sensation when she’d seen Princess Sitamun the night of the Bast Festival but hadn’t realized its importance at the time.
One wore a crown…
If she, Sitamun, Karim, and the Sakeshi farm girl he’d mentioned were the four figures in her vision, then the oracle was truly coming to pass.
A deep dread grew within her. It spoke of events beyond her knowledge, events that had already been set in motion.
It was all too much to keep inside. She needed to talk to someone, to stop feeling so alone. After giving thanks to Bast, she left her rooms to seek out the only person she could trust.
***
Kenna was easy to find. All Neff had to do was follow the sound of the commotion to the embalming chamber, where his voice rose above the others, its volume jarring among the overwhelming silence. Curious, she crept to the open doorway and peered around the edge, hoping to get a peek inside without being spotted.
The prince stood facing half a dozen Sem priests, his face flushed and his arms akimbo. Neff had never seen him that way before.
“Please, my prince,” the oldest Sem priest said, his expression pained. “Our only desire is to assist you with the king’s embalming ritual. You know as well as anyone that this isn’t a one-man job, and for apharaoh, it’s—”
“He’s not merely the pharaoh,” Kenna said, his voice cutting through the other man’s like a blade. “He is my father. No one shall touch him but me. Do you understand? This is my duty. I must do it alone.”
The elder priest’s shoulders fell. “As you wish,” he said, and gestured for the others to follow him out.
Neff leaped back from the door and slid behind a pillar until all the Sem priests had gone. In the wake of their departure, silence washed back over the hall—so completely that Neff began to wonder if Kenna had gone with them. But then he spoke.
“You can come in now, Neff.”
She emerged from her hiding place. “How do you always know?” she asked as she entered the chamber.
Kenna stood in the center of the room, his head bowed over a familiar form that lay across the two stone pedestals where the old woman’s corpse had once been. It had been obscured by the crowd of priests when she’d first looked in, and seeing it made her heart leap into her throat.
The king.
Neff stopped, covering her mouth with one hand.
Amunmose’s thin, ravaged body was naked aside from a fine linen shroud draped over his waist. The last time she’d seen his face, it had regarded her with hope, begging for a message from the gods that he felt had abandoned him. She’d offered him lies, and now he was gone.
“I’m so sorry,” Neff blurted. It was both a condolence and an apology.
Kenna looked up at her, his eyes red-rimmed but dry.
“Thank you. We weren’t close, my father and I,” he said, his gaze drifting back down to the body. “But unlike Mother, he never objected to my decision to join the priesthood. Father thought people should do what they wanted.” He paused. “Hecertainly did. Perhaps putting desire over duty made him a poor king, but… I owe him this final honor for allowing me my freedom.”
He went to the table where his tools lay waiting.
“I should let you be alone,” Neff said, taking a step back toward the door.
“No, wait.” Kenna sighed and turned, and Neff noticed justhow tired he was. He must not have slept much since the king’s collapse the night before.
“The priests’ company would have been burdensome. Yours would be a comfort.” He pressed his lips together in a thin line. “I should warn you, though. The embalming ritual isn’t for the fainthearted. Do you think you’ll be all right?”
Neff bit her lip. Kenna was a prince. He could have commanded her to stay if he wished it—but he wasn’t commanding. He was asking. And despite her apprehension at witnessing a harrowing process she’d only heard tales of, Neff couldn’t abandon her adopted brother in his time of need.
“Of course I will,” she replied.
